MEMOIR OF PLINY. 41 



love for justice his respect for virtue his detesta- 

 tion of cruelty and baseness, of which he had seen 

 such terrible examples, and his contempt for that 



abated, and to-day the alarmed inhabitants of Ottajano 

 and Maura begin to breathe a little freely. The injury 

 done to houses and land, about 300 moggie, is reckoned at 

 L. 300,000. It is impossible to give you a complete idea of 

 this sublime and terrific natural spectacle. As it was not 

 attended by any danger to approach the lava during the 

 last three evenings, not only the number of gentlefolks who 

 went to see the threatened villages was great, including all 

 that was distinguished of natives and foreigners in Naples, 

 Sorrento, and Castellmare, but thousands of the peasants 

 and citizens, with their wives and children, from all the 

 neighbourhood, came and saw, and wondered at the pro- 

 gress of the destruction. What a contrast between the ter- 

 ror of the despairing inhabitants, who in a moment saw their 

 whole property the only hope in future for their at least 

 painful life irrecoverably lost ; and the wild and almost 

 mocking, singing, and laughing, of the jackass drivers, and 

 the rude merriment of some soldiers, who, not contented 

 with the injury done by the eruption, proceeded with Van- 

 dal rage to destroy what Vesuvius had spared. 



" SEPT. 6 The state of Vesuvius is not yet peaceful 

 enough. Every day huge pillars of smoke arise from the 

 middle of the crater, which generally disperse in light 

 showers of ashes, and often are accompanied by very loud 

 reports. The well known cicerone of Vesuvius, Salvatore, 

 is of opinion that another eruption may be expected ; and 

 persons are afraid that it will take place in the middle of 

 the mountain, and direct the lava towards Portici. The 

 lava, the destructive flow of which only stopped on the 1st, 

 pressed forward to about a mile from Scafati, a small town 

 on the river Sarno, and has almost cut off the communica- 

 tion between Nola and Castellmare, having stopped only a 

 few paces from the high road. Three hundred families 

 have lost their homes and their vineyards, which promised 



